"Get Away" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Danish picture sleeve | ||||
Single by Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames | ||||
B-side | "El Bandido" | |||
Released | 17 June 1966 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:24 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Clive Powell | |||
Producer(s) | Denny Cordell | |||
Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames singles chronology | ||||
|
"Get Away" [nb 1] is a song by Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, written by Georgie Fame (credited under his birth name Clive Powell). Initially written and recorded for an advertising campaign for petrol, the song was subsequently released on Columbia. It topped the UK Singles Chart for one week in July 1966.
Fame wrote and recorded "Get Away" after being commissioned to write "a happy piece of music" as a jingle for an advertising campaign for National Benzole petrol. [3] [4] [5] The song was pressed as a promotional one-sided single to be given away "to people who bought four gallons of petrol", according to Fame. [3]
The recording was reworked after producer Denny Cordell recognised its potential. [5] The song prominently features stabs of brass, described by music journalist Penny Valentine as "coming in at exactly the right time with the persistance of a French taxi driver blowing his horn". [6] Baritone sax player Glen Hughes reportedly considered his one note contribution "his easiest buck in a recording studio". [7] Fame was pleased with the song's musical balance, telling Disc and Music Echo "I'm still young enough to enjoy rock 'n' roll. I don't want to go out on a limb and play introvert jazz – the jazz I play is very danceable. "Get Away" grooves just as much as some pure rhythm and blues". [8]
"Get Away", backed with Fame's own composition "El Bandido", was released through Columbia on 17 June 1966 in the UK. [9] It topped the UK Singles Chart for one week in July 1966, becoming Fame's second UK number one after "Yeh, Yeh" (1965). [10] [11] The single was released in the United States on the Imperial label, a subsidiary of Liberty, and reached number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100. [12] Fame felt the chart success of "Get Away" "marked a really specific stage in my development" as, unlike "Yeh, Yeh", the song was self-composed. [13]
Upon release, Norman Jopling and Peter Jones of Record Mirror praised the song's arrangement as "hustle-rhythm, fast-lyricked and with curious and compelling little brass-sax phrase". [14] Penny Valentine of Disc and Music Echo considered "Get Away" "musically the best record Georgie has ever made", opining "it swings more than anything he's done on a single". [6] Tony Barrow, writing under his pseudonym Disker in the Liverpool Echo , praised the song's "ear-catching" arrangement. [15]
"Get Away" was later used as the theme-tune for the long-running travel and lifestyle show Getaway on Australian television.[ citation needed ]
Chart (1966) | Peak position |
---|---|
UK Singles (The Official Charts Company) | 1 |
US Billboard Hot 100 | 70 |
Georgie Fame is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the only British music act to have achieved three UK No. 1 hits with his only top 10 chart entries: "Yeh, Yeh" in 1964, "Get Away" in 1966 and "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967.
Penelope Ann Valentine was a British music journalist, rock critic, and occasional television personality.
Reach Out is the fourth studio album by the Four Tops, issued on Motown Records in July 1967. The group's biggest-selling studio album, Reach Out includes six of the Four Tops' most successful singles including the US and UK #1 hit "Reach Out I'll Be There", "Standing in the Shadows of Love", "Bernadette" and "7-Rooms of Gloom". The album was the group's last with the songwriting team of Holland–Dozier–Holland and also features covers of contemporary pop hits selected by Berry Gordy, among them Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter", the Left Banke's "Walk Away Renée" and two songs originally recorded by the Monkees. The album reached number 11 on Billboard Top LPs chart and peaked at number 4 in the United Kingdom, where it was released in November after delays. In 2020, Reach Out was ranked number 429 in Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.
"Painter Man" is a song written by British singer Kenny Pickett and guitarist Eddie Phillips, first recorded by their group the Creation and released as a single in October 1966. Written as a response to their avant-garde stage show, the single was their only top-forty hit on the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 36. It fared better in West Germany, where it reached number eight. It was later issued on their album We Are Paintermen.
Sound Venture is a jazz album recorded by Georgie Fame and the Harry South Big Band in 1966. Featuring many of Britain's top jazz musicians, and arranged by big band arranger Harry South, it marked a departure from Fame's R&B hits with the Blue Flames. The record peaked at number 9 on the national albums chart in the UK.
"Matthew and Son" is a song written and released by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens in 1966. Following his discovery by producer and manager Mike Hurst, Stevens debuted professionally in the music business with the release of his single "I Love My Dog" in September 1966. The song's surprising commercial success established his idiosyncratic songwriting style and extended his contract with Deram Records. "Matthew and Son" was musically inspired by a previous song he had written, while the lyrics were inspired by his girlfriend at the time who worked a lot. Musically, the song is a baroque pop song with both brass and string arrangements while the lyrics tells the tale of the titular company exploiting their timid workers. "Matthew and Son" was recorded on 1 December 1966 at Decca Studios in London with Hurst producing.
Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames were a British rhythm and blues group during the 1960s whose repertoire spanned R&B, pop, rock and jazz.
Disc was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into Record Mirror. It was also known for periods as Disc Weekly (1964–1966) and Disc and Music Echo (1966–1972).
"Listen to Me" is a 1968 single by the Hollies, written by Tony Hazzard. It was the last Hollies single of Graham Nash's original tenure in the group. The song reached number 11 on the UK Singles Chart in October 1968 and received praise from critics.
"Give It to Me" is a song by English rock band the Troggs, released as a single in February 1967. In the UK, it peaked just outside the top ten, ending their run of consecutive top-ten hits.
Sweet Things is the 1966 third album with the Blue Flames by Georgie Fame which reached No.6 in the album Top Ten in the UK. Following this album his band The Blue Flames was replaced with The Tornados.
Holly in the Hills is a compilation album by American rock and roll singer Buddy Holly, including songs featuring Bob Montgomery originally released under "Buddy & Bob". The album was released as an LP record in both mono and stereo formats in January 1965.
"When I Come Home" is a song written by Steve Winwood and Jackie Edwards, first recorded by Winwood's band the Spencer Davis Group in 1966. Released as a single that summer, it reached number 12 in the UK Singles Chart. The single received mixed reviews upon release, with Penny Valentine deeming it inferior to their previous singles. The band was featured in the movie The Ghost Goes Gear (1966), miming to the track.
This article is the discography of English R&B and jazz musician Georgie Fame, both with the Blue Flames and as a solo artist.
"It's All Over" is a song by the Everly Brothers, released as a single in December 1965 from their album In Our Image.
"I'll Love You Forever Today" is a song by British singer Cliff Richard released as a single in June 1968. It peaked at number 27 on the UK Singles Chart.
"She Needs Love" is a song written by Clint Ballard Jr. for Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders. It was the third and final song written by him that the group recorded, following "The Game of Love" and "It's Just a Little Bit Too Late". Upon release, the single only reached number 32 in the UK, which prompted Fontana to pursue a solo career while the Mindbenders continued as a trio.
"Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James" is a song written by songwriters Geoff Stephens and John Carter, recorded by English pop group Manfred Mann in 1966. Stephens and Carter, who were writers for a publishing company on Denmark Street, London, wrote the song in a style different from their usual compositions, as love was not the prevalent theme. Introduced to the song by producer Shel Talmy, Manfred Mann recorded it at Philips Studio in August 1966. Released by Fontana Records on 21 October 1966, the song was backed by drummer Mike Hugg's composition "Morning After The Party" as the group's second single on the label. Keyboardist Manfred Mann plays the Mellotron on the recording; it was one of the earliest recordings featuring the instrument. Following a trend set by Bob Dylan, the song tackles the subject of life in British middle class suburbia from the perspective of a narrator, who laments the loss of a lover after her marriage to another man.